Jones was declared legally dead in 1986, and his family collected his Social Security benefits.

But investigators say it turned out that Jones was very much alive all along, and actually has been living under the alias of Joseph Richard Sandelli since about the time of his disappearance.

“Mr. Jones apparently had a valid Social Security number that was issued to another person, and that’s how he was discovered, was someone filed a complaint,” Kevin Malone of the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles said last month.

Malone said Jones first went to Florida under the Sandelli alias, and then to Las Vegas in the late 1980s.

For the past ten years, he’s been working there in a sports betting operation.